Rules Tip of the Day: Know your state-based effects—A player with ten or more poison counters will lose the game. For years this was probably the least checked state-based effect, but poison counters have made a long awaited return in Time Spiral block.

Q: If I have a Primal Forcemage in play, and I play Hunting Wilds with Kicker, does the Forcemage see the 3/3 lands as creatures coming into play?

A: No. When the Kicker cost of Hunting Wilds is paid, you put up to two Forest cards into play, and then they become 3/3 creatures. They do not come into play as creatures, so Primal Forcemage's ability will not trigger.

Q: Can I use Power Conduit to remove a time counter from a Suspended card?

A: No, that does not work. Suspended cards are not permanents, even if they are cards that will become permanents when they enter play. So you cannot remove a time counter from a Suspended card.

Q: Can I use Trickbind to counter my opponent unmorphing Brine Elemental?

A: No. Morph is not an activated ability and it does not use the stack and cannot be responded to. However, you can use Trickbind to counter Brine Elemental's triggered ability. The Brine Elemental will be face up, but you will not skip your next untap step.

Q: I was wondering if there is an ordering to state-based effects. For example, I have a Sulfur Elemental, a Knight of the Holy Nimbus, and a Leyline of Singularity. If I play another Sulfur Elemental, would the Knight die as well as the Sulfur Elementals?

A: All state-based effects are checked at the same time; they are not checked in an order. In this example, the check for two Legendary permanents and the check for creatures with zero toughness is made at the same time. This means that both Legendary Sulfur Elementals and the zero-toughness Knight of the Holy Nimbus will go to the graveyard at the same time.

Q: I have Rhystic Study and Counterbalance in play. My opponent plays a spell, and does not pay 1, so I can draw a card. Do I draw a card first and then reveal the next card to see if the spell is countered, or do I reveal the first card to try to counter that spell, then draw that same card?

A: When your opponent play a spell, the abilities of both Rhystic Study and Counterbalance will trigger. As the controller of these two abilities, you can choose the order that they go on the stack and, therefore, the order that they resolve. So the order that you apply these effects is up to you. Also, your opponent does not choose whether or not to pay one mana until Rhystic Study's ability resolves. This is true even if the Rhystic Study ability resolves last and the spell that triggered its ability has already been countered.

Q: I control The Abyss. It's my opponent's upkeep, and the only creature he controls is Troll Ascetic. Considering the wordings on the cards, does The Abyss force my opponent to target his Ascetic? And is the outcome the same if I control both the Abyss and the Ascetic?

A: Your opponent's Troll Ascetic cannot be targeted by spells and abilities that you control, even if he chooses the target of the ability. So no, he cannot choose to target his Troll Ascetic with the ability of your The Abyss. As there is no legal target for this ability, The Abyss ability will leave the stack and do nothing. If this was your Troll Ascetic, then you could target it, so it could be targeted and destroyed by your Abyss.

Q: How do Channel and Angel's Grace interact? Can I generate infinite mana after both of these spells have resolved and not lose the game?

A: No, that does not work. After Channel has resolved, the effect allows you to pay life in order to add mana to your mana pool. However, you cannot pay life that you do not have. At most, you'll be able to pay life equal to your current life total. Normally, you'd only be able to pay one less life then your actual life total (without dying—the rules don't stop you from paying that last point), but Angel's Grace will prevent you from losing the game this turn if you pay your last point of life.

Q: I have Stasis, Root Maze, and Chronatog in play. All permanents my opponent has are tapped. My opponents deck does not contain any cards that can affect any of the permanents mentioned above. At the end of each of my opponent's turns, I use Chronatog's ability and skip my next turn. Repeating this ritual will deck my opponent. Does this lock mean an automatic win for me, or does my opponent have ways to stall the game and make it a draw?

A: First of all, a couple of thoughts before I get to my answer. Whether or not your opponent has a method to deal with one or more of these cards in play is irrelevant. How would you know this anyway? And if your opponent did have a way of dealing with this lock (like Abolish) why should that be treated any differently than if he did not? You need to actually cause your opponent to lose the game, not just make it impossible for him to cause you to lose. The second thought it that you will win this game in most cases, but there are occasionally other factors involved.

As mentioned above, this lock does not mean you have an "auto win." In order to cause your opponent to lose the game, he has to attempt to draw a card off of an empty library. Having said that, a player cannot intentionally stall games by playing slowly under any circumstances. What this means is that your opponent must play at a reasonable pace. From your description, your opponent is pretty much just drawing a card in his turn and doing nothing else, apart from discarding at the end of his turn if he has more cards than his maximum hand size. Doing so should not take up much time, if any. He cannot draw a card, pause, pretend to analyze the game state or spend too much time deciding what to discard at the end of his turn, etc. Doing so is cheating. How this plays out depends on how big your opponent's library is and how much time is left in the round. For example, if there are just 20 seconds left in the round when you achieve this lock and your opponent has 30 cards in his library, this game will most likely end up in a draw if your opponent does not concede. I suggest that if there is any problem that you call a judge over to watch for slow play.